Oromo: FROM MAIKELAWI TO KALITI

THE TORTURE-PRISON SYSTEMMaikelawi is the Amharic name for the Federal Police Crime Investigation and Forensic Department (FPCFD); and Kaliti is the main prison located on the eastern outskirts of Finfinne (Addis Ababa) in Hakaki Kaliti Woreda (county).

Maikelawi is the well-known detention and torturing center in the country. It used to also be called Sostenga Police Tabiya (the Third Police Station) during Mengistu’s military regime. This is the place where Oromo sons and daughters experience the most atrocities committed by the EPRDF federal police, security services and anti-terrorism task force. This was the place where innocent Oromos, including myself, were detained, beaten, intimidated and dehumanized in 2008. This is not new to Oromos, but I am talking about what I had witnessed.

Kaliti is one of the biggest prison centers where thousands of Ethiopian citizens, 90% of whom are Oromos, are suffering. I was lucky to be released on bail and to be able to escape the long term imprisonment passed on me on March 31, 2010. But, others, who were detained or sentenced on the same day, are now facing death, life imprisonment (Mesfin Abebe and Tesfahun Chemeda, respectively), and long-term imprisonments. This report covers only what I had witnessed during the one and half months of my detention in Maikelawi, and two months in the Kaliti prison.